I love the beach. Not just "I love vacations and relaxing and getting a tan." I love, love, LOVE the beach. I love the ocean. I love the wind and the smells and the food and the warmth. I often fantasize about having a boat or a beach house and finding some cheesy name for it. Like "Island Fantaseas" or "Waves of my heart".
I could live at the beach. I know a lot of people say that but I really think I could. A slower paced lifestyle is in my nature. No big cities or hustle and bustle. Living a life that allows life to happen instead of being worked away.
This weekend, I spend four great days with my family at Carolina Beach. I spent a morning on the oceanfront porch, book in hand, yogurt and muesli breakfast and a bottle of water, knowing that I could spend many, many days of my life doing that very thing. Perhaps one day the reading would instead be writing. Or editing pictures. Or talking to my husband and kids.
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| everyone's happier at the beach. it just happens that way |
Life is too complicated. There are too many lists. Too many emails. Too many definitions of success. Too many electronics for when we get tired of thinking for ourselves. Life is meant to be absorbed, not washed quickly away and merely tolerated.
My first day back at work and in front of a computer after four days at the beach, my mind became instantly foggy, like I'd just woken up from a too-long nap. Never really focusing on anything and definitely not really caring about anything. And for what? A job? A paycheck? Being a productive member of society? Maybe it is all relative. Maybe appreciating the dynamic sensory experience of something like the ocean goes away if you live in it long enough. Maybe your senses become dull and in turn yearn for meetings and to-do lists and complicated schedules. Maybe. I'm sure happy to test that theory.
It sounds so wonderful. I have a question maybe you can help me out with. Justin's and my ten year anniversary is next year. While I would love to escape to Venice, Italy, for a couple weeks, it's just not in the budget. I was thinking there must be some magical, romantic seaboard here in the states. I was thinking maybe in the Carolinas. Or one of the islands off Georgia. But I am super unfamiliar with that side of the country. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteYou just completely summed up my feelings of the beach.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to get away.
Nice. I have long felt the same way about the mountains...a slower pace of life and I'm not even retired yet ;-) but it's bliss...it really is.
ReplyDeleteI think we all have our, 'beaches'. Just like the person who commented above, mine is in the mountains and amongst the trees. Which figures because I grew up near all the big mountains and trees in WA.
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